Dahlia
by Kinesako
Summary: Nine years ago, her life changed in a single minute. Nine years later, she has to face the past yet again. That doesn't necessarily mean she has to face it alone.
1. A Wedding to Remember

"Mommy, are we there yet?" I asked with my hands firmly grasping her left hand as we walked down the concrete sidewalk.

"We're almost there, Lyra," she told me. "Almost there!"

We kept walking on the sidewalk, attracting attention from everyone who passed by us. My mom and I were heading for Fortree Catholic School, where the marriage was taking place at the church there.

My mom was wearing a slim black dress accented with small ruffles here and there. It wasn't a surprise that people were looking at her strangely, I mean, it was nearing two in the afternoon and she was wearing an evening dress!

I, on the other hand, was wearing a white puffy-sleeved sundress with lacy frills and magenta ribbons. My hair was in its usual glory: chocolate colored in two low pig tails. Unlike the usual metal-free hair ties that I usually used to tie my hair up, my mom tied them up with magenta ribbons to match my dress.

The two of us rounded a corner to see a small amount of people entering through a gate. Like us, they were all dolled up, so I immediately assumed that that was the entrance.

"We're here!" my mom announced to me.

I let go of her hand and ran towards the grass covered areas of the campus, twirling around with my dress. Whether or not girls my age should be doing this didn't matter because I never looked my age!

While I was spinning around, an older girl with blonde hair ran out the church and yelled, "Some guy in glasses is blocking a hallway!"

Being a curious human being, I ran into the church following the other kids whose attention was caught by the statement. I couldn't go on to follow them because my movements were halted the minute I entered the church.

The plush carpet at my feet had different designs with different colors that repeated in order to make a pattern. The wallpaper was a horizontal striped design with interchanging colors that was elegant despite its simplicity. Up above, a diamond chandelier hung, with small refractions of the light through the gems scattered across the room. The green, gold, and red hue of the carpet combined with the beige and peach of the walls…the two color combinations that should have clashed harmoniously complimented each other. Not to mention the little bits of lighter areas that sometimes had a sliver of a rainbow…

Breaking out of the trance, I followed another group of kids down the left corridor. It only led us to the ballroom, which had the same wallpaper as the other room. (It wasn't the church, but rather the entrance to the church itself.) The tables in the room were already set, with a white tablecloth over a beige one and gold-lined tableware on top of them. In the middle of each of them was a bouquet with yellow and white roses wrapped up with crème-colored silk ribbons to coordinate with the table itself.

"We lost him!" I heard a boy yell, clearly disappointed at the loss.

I was about to give up pursuing this unknown person as well until I strolled to the other end of the ballroom to see two mahogany doors with intricate designs carved into them. Pushing one open revealed a theater with scaling red seats and a pallid-white interior.

Stepping in, I closed the door and decided to explore the place. Through the silence of the grand area, I could feel my heart pounding. Not only because the interior of this building was breathtaking, but because I wanted to know who the mysterious boy with glasses was.

When I heard music, I paused in my place, trying to find the source. I couldn't, of course, because I was still high up. The stage was at the end of the scaling seats, but my height wouldn't let me see a glimpse of the stage below.

The music was different. It wasn't the stuff that they played on the radio, but it was the reverberating sound of a piano that could cut through the soul. Each note flowed from the next one to the next, creating a flowing masterpiece to the ears. But when the singing started, I was about to cry. The sublime sound of the voice paired up with the subtle sound of the piano made my heart ache. I could feel pain, loneliness, and sorrow float about the notes, but at the same time, the divine skill exerted through the song…it was just too much.

Moments later, I was running out of the theater and ran into the other corridor leading to the church. My eyes scanned the church for May, Dawn, and Leaf, but I couldn't see them anywhere. Instead of going back to the theater to listen to the heart-wrenching composition, I planted myself in the pew next to a table chocked with gifts of various shapes and sizes.

"Hey!" I heard May call from somewhere, so I turned my head around to see the three of them, smiles on their faces. "Are you bored?"

"Nope, I was just waiting for you guys." I told them. "I need to show you something."

"If it's the church, we've already seen it," Dawn said.

"No, it's not. Just come with me."

I stood up from the pew and led them back to the theater. Compared to the time that I entered, kids were piling in, the first few rows of the place filled with squirming kids. We sat down at the right side of the stage close to the front, filling up four empty seats in the middle of a nearly full row.

"So, it's just a show?" Dawn asked, her voice dripping with disappointment.

"I hope it's a magic show!" Leaf exclaimed.

"It's not. Just watch." My eyes were glued onto the stage that I could see before, looking at the grand piano and microphone stand that were previously placed there.

"Hold on, I don't remember Winona and Wallace having a show for their wedding. And even if there was one, wouldn't it be until later?" May was doubtful about this, but I wouldn't blame her. She was finely tuned with her instincts, so I wouldn't be surprised if something bad happened, but…

"Oh, come on! Just forget your instincts for once, May!" Dawn snapped.

"But-"

"No buts! Just wait for the dang show and forget any apprehensive feelings you may have."

Oddly, we were silenced. Not because Dawn was scary when she was angry, but she just used a big word. What was it again? Apperehensive or something?

Actually, I was surprised that the whole place quieted when she yelled that, but it wasn't her. Down on the stage, the boy with glasses appeared, standing in front of the microphone as a red-haired boy sat at the grand piano. Another girl followed in suit, holding a cello and a bow. Hold on a moment…the girl looks familiar…

It was the same song again. This time, the elegant sound of strings intertwined with the piano and voice, increasing the impact of the song. I could see that May was on the verge of crying, Dawn already had tears falling, and Leaf was utterly silent.

The boy with glasses jumped off the stage and started to walk around as he kept singing, causing some screams to come from the girls. He approached a girl who sat in the middle of an empty row and sang, but she seemed completely unaffected from his presence.

Soon enough, he headed over to where we were and I could hear Dawn softly singing the song, as if she already knew it. Offering her a hand, she took it and they waltzed for a bit before leading Dawn back to her seat.

Next he offered Leaf his hand, but she was too in awe of the presentation that she didn't notice it at all. And even if she did, I'm sure she was thinking of someone else at that moment.

I wasn't surprised when May politely declined his offer. He didn't stop singing after the rejection, but instead moved over to me.

I didn't know whether to reject it like May, or take it like Dawn. Leaf's scenario was out of the question because it was evident that I already took notice to it. What to do…what to do…

_Loneliness._

_Despair._

_No mind._

_No heart._

_A human shell._

_He's a secret agent._

My voice echoed this in my mind. I didn't understand it at first, but I started to feel the negativity radiating from him. Although a smile was on the boy's face, he really was just a human shell, following directions from who ever gave them to him.

Before I could even say no, he pulled me up. I thought he was going to dance, but he ended up dragging me without my consent, the force that he used to pull me nearly popped my arm out of its socket. That was when the music stopped and the singing ended, only to have the kids avert their attention towards me.

"LYRA!" May, Leaf, and Dawn yelled, clearly seeing the pain I was feeling. They ran towards me, but they couldn't reach me in time.

The wall exploded, creating a big hole at the right of the theater. Adults dressed in black were there, malicious intent radiating from them as well.

To get away from this, I started squirming out of the boy's grasp. At first, I didn't know that I was squirming, but I was. It was like an instinct, and I was soon out of his snare.

Taking a look at the scene, I noticed the red-haired guy at the piano and the cello girl running away with the rest of us, but they were caught by the adults in black. I caught a good look at the two of them and realized who the girl was. She was-

When I heard May scream, I turned around to see a boy wearing this odd hat standing in front of her, his head clearly bleeding. He took her by the hand, and they ran along with the rest of the children who managed to escape.

Leaf was utterly terrified, hiding behind the red seats in fetal position. Gary was with her, urging her to follow him by crawling on the floor to get to the exit. But Leaf was already crying, the shock of everything already overwhelmed her.

I tried to look for Dawn, but she was already in the arms of Lucas and Barry, who were carrying her limp body to the exit. It looks like she fainted from where I was standing, but for all I knew, she could have been injured in the explosion.

Watching everything was just too much. This was a happy day, a day that two people were to be married. But this just had to ruin it. Look at the kids already suffering from this! Some were badly injured from the debris, others were taken away by force, and I was being pursued by the boy.

"RUN LYRA! RUN!" I heard the cello girl yell. So I followed what she said and just ran. My heart was pounding, my arm was hurting and my head was throbbing. But how in the world was my head throbbing…just how?

At that moment, everything went black as my consciousness escaped me and my body fell of the floor.

…

It was nine years since the event happened. I was five and now I'm fourteen, ready to enter Fortree Catholic School's high school program.

Why I ever wanted to go back to the place where the scarring memories were was something I couldn't fathom my self. Everything that I felt at that time would surge back into my mind, the one image that I couldn't forget no matter how hard I tried would haunt me again, and all those years avoiding the school was a failed attempt to suppress the unwanted recollection.

I was lucky that I even survived the incident. Shortly after I collapsed, my mom told me that a boy in glasses carried me out of the theater and into the church. She also told me that I was holding a red dahlia in my hand.

The flower never wilted, and it never showed any signs of wilting anytime soon. Actually, it was funny how it ever appeared in my hand in the first place. Even funnier was the fact that it wasn't even dead yet.

Wallace and Winona were speechless hearing the event that happened in the theater and they halted their marriage. They did get married, but it was an outdoor marriage near the clear blue sea, paired up with a clear sky.

When that happened, Dawn was in a wheelchair, her brain badly injured from the damage it took from the flying debris, causing a temporary paralysis in her legs. May and Leaf went into a withdrawal, staying close to the boys who saved their lives. They never talked to anyone, and even if they did, it was an inaudible whisper to either Brendan or Gary respectively.

I never attended the wedding. In fact, I stayed at home, curled up in a ball under my sheets. Unlike my other three friends, I was the one affected the most. The news was too much to bear for my five year old self. Even now it burdens me, but over the years of carrying it, I eventually got used to it.

It was all over the news for the next year or so, talking about the explosion and the mysterious people. The kids were interviewed to recall the painful memories and when they did, they were recommended to see a psychologist, and they were lucky that the visits were paid for by the government to help them recover.

Everything was still a blur for everyone. Who were the people in black? And what was their motive for doing it? My mom and I knew. We were the only ones, but it was best that the information didn't get leaked to the public.

For me, there was one thing still not clear to me. Who was the guy that saved me? My mom told me that he was wearing glasses, but it couldn't be the guy who nearly ripped my arm out of its socket. It just couldn't. But if I have to recall the memory, he was the only one wearing a pair…

"Lyra, are you sure you want to go?" my mom asked me as I walked down the stairs, the wool blazer weighing me down.

"Yeah, the psychologist recommended it for the others. Maybe it would help me…"

"But honey, you know that you're different from the others." A concerned look was on her face, but she knew as much as I did how this could affect me. Whether for the good or the bad, we didn't know, so it may have positive effects.

"Mom, I'll be going now."

"Wait!"

I turned around to see her carrying my red dahlia clip that she asked Winona to make with the red dahlia I got when I was five. She put it in my hair and then waved goodbye.

I stepped out of the house onto the front lawn to see Leaf and Gary quarreling about something. May and Brendan were arguing about something as well, while Lucas and Barry were yelling at each other, making Dawn roll her eyes. Things changed ever since we grew.

Dawn finally regained control over her legs, and Lucas and Barry started taking care of her. This led to them arguing because they liked her, leading to their behavior today. How Dawn even deals with it without showing a hint of annoyance is absolutely amazing.

By the time Leaf exited her withdrawal, she was, in Gary's words: "A sarcastic, obnoxious, nosy, annoying…lady". All of us assumed it was a messed up love-hate relationship since they were always seen together, but some of us started doubting that little assumption.

Lastly, May and Brendan turned into the other. May became more tomboyish and Brendan turned into a "gay" boy. It's funny how they literally traded personalities. Hit their heads together and who knows. They might even revert back to their younger selves!

"Well, would you look at that!" Barry exclaimed, staring at the red dahlia clip.

"She's wearing it!" Lucas said after, pointing at my clip.

The quarrelling paused for a brief moment to take a look at the red clip in my hair. They shrugged it off before walking, but this time, they rearranged the groups. The girls were in the front while the guys were in the back.

"Are you still hung up on the guy that saved you?" Dawn asked.

"Well, kind of…but my mom just put it on me before I left…"

"Mothers…they don't ever get us, do they?" May sighed. Of course she understands this; after all, her mother kept forcing her to wear feminine stuff.

Leaf just kept walking beside May, not really interested in the conversation. Of course she wouldn't, after all, she was separated from her parents at a young age. The story wasn't exactly clear, but apparently she was kidnapped, she escaped from her kidnapper, and then ended up in front of Professor Oak's house. This can explain her little dilemma with Gary, but only a little bit…

"But still, I can't believe we're going back there…" Dawn stated, looking at the guys in front of us. "I mean, that placed scarred us. And now our psychologist recommends that we attend that scary place? Maybe he should be the one to see a shrink."

Leaf exhaled, catching my attention. "Yeah, I remember that day. The day when I crawled out of there following Gary…"

"Anyone say my name?" Gary called from the front, clearly eavesdropping on our conversation.

"Yeah, because we're talking about how insensitive you are," Leaf barked back.

The two started to yell at each other again, but the rest of us just ignored them, leaving the two teens to let it all out on the sidewalk. It was silent for a bit before Leaf and Gary returned, Gary walking by Brendan and Leaf walking by May.

"Also, it was the day Brendan got hurt." May looked at the guy with the weird hat with calm eyes, as if she was reminiscing about good things. "I remember I stayed with him at the hospital, staring at him without that hat. He looks so much better without it…"

"Do we smell-"

"Love in the air?" I finished for Dawn, smirking at May's small little confession.

May looked at us in surprise, but instead of her scolding us about being so insensitive, she muttered in a soft voice, "Maybe…"

"Huh? May, did you say something?" Brendan asked her, listening in to the chat like Gary was.

"No. I didn't say anything. It was probably the breeze or something."

Poor May. That was the worst cover up in history. There wasn't a breeze, the birds were chirping, the cars weren't driving on the road, and it was pretty much silent. I noticed that almost everyone cringed at the deemed "EPIC-PHAIL" moment.

"Either my imagination was acting up or you actually replied to that question."

"Brendan, you were always crazy. And it's all because of that hat you're wearing."

"My hat is a symbol of-"

"Beauty? Dude, it looks like you have some crazy weird hair-do or something."

"You wouldn't understand!"

"Understand? I was exactly like you before!" May halted in mid-sentence, not wanting to say the last part. We all knew, of course, what was going to follow after, but we decided to leave it at that.

The rest of the walk to school was silent, the only people were Barry, Lucas, and Dawn talking about where to eat their afternoon snacks. It was their tradition to do that after school, just like it was for Brendan and May to go by the bayou and Leaf and Gary to go to the library.

The school gate was coming up and we walked in, taken aback by the small amount of students on campus. Fortree Catholic School was one of the most prestigious schools around the area, but I'm sure the events nine years ago scared half the population of enrolling their children there.

"Well, this isn't good," I told them. "There're two words for small campuses like these: academically rigorous."

A chorus of groans and moans erupted in the group. We continued to walk on the courtyard, heading for the school building so that we could go to the office, talk about things, and finally get into our classes. We were probably going to share the same class because of the lack of students, but that's a good thing.

After we talked with the people at the office, we entered the empty classroom and filled in all the seats in the back. No one fought for the window seat because we didn't want to look out the glass since the hole in the theater could be seen. Since everyone avoided the window seat, I took it, the seat in front of mine empty.

Soon enough, the whole class started to fill up, girls and boys I've never met filling up the rest of the vacant seats. Only my seat was still empty by the time the bell rang, signaling that homeroom started.

The teacher walked in carrying an attendance sheet, but he sat at his desk at the front while the rest of the class was talking, excluding the group at the back who didn't say a word since we stepped into the room.

Usually, we would be the loudest ones in the classroom with the usual bickers and people being made fun of by Barry and Lucas, but this place was different. I could feel how uncharted this place was. All the kids talking were chatting about boy crushes and the guys were chatting about hot girls, which was different than our school because our old place actually had something called diversity.

Another bell rang, which probably meant that homeroom ended. The teacher who was sitting at the front finally stood up and started calling out our names from the list. Unlike other teachers, he did this with less enthusiasm, acting like the old man he was.

"Lyra?"

"Present."

"Ethan?"

No one in the class answered.

"Ethan?" the teacher asked again. He was about to mark him absent until the door swung open to reveal a guy.

"Here."

When he walked in, I had to admit, he was pretty cute. But behind that, I could feel that there was something amiss about him. That was when I noticed the vibe radiating from him. It was so nostalgic, feeling similar to the one I felt from the boy when I was five, but this one was on a higher scale. It intensified ten fold from when I last felt something like this.

Flashes of the scene at the theater flashed before my eyes again, and I could hear my voice echoing through my mind, saying things at lightning speed so that it sounded like gibberish. But my mind was talking to me, saying something, but I couldn't understand it.

"Lyra, are you okay?" Leaf asked.

At this time, my eyes were closed, trying to ease the pain. Feeling of loneliness, despair, utter sorrow and sadness flowed to me, and it was the same feeling that I got back then. Back when the boy was still singing, and I was sneaking around the theater.

It wasn't long until my head started to throb again, just like what happened when I was running away from the boy. This time, it felt like it was about to explode, like the pressure on my skull was increasing by the second, trying to turn my brain into mush.

"Lyra!" I heard the others call, trying to get me to open my eyes. Even voices that weren't familiar to me were calling my name, trying to snap me back into the real world.

And yet, the name calling didn't work. I could hear the footsteps of that Ethan guy as he approached my seat, and the pain increased every time I heard his foot come in contact with the floor. By the time he sat in his seat, I reached my limit and couldn't stand the agony.

I fell to the floor, my conscious escaping me again. But I could vaguely remember someone catching me before I fell smack into the hard floor.

It's funny how life loves to repeat itself.


	2. Reminiscing Old Memories

Who was that Ethan guy and why did it happen when he walked in? Could he be the same five year old who nearly popped my arm out of its socket? No, there wasn't a resemblance at all. And although the feelings were similar, they weren't exactly the same. It couldn't be him, it just couldn't be him.

But I couldn't listen to myself. No, my younger and older self started an internal conflict. Little me kept saying that Ethan was him, just that the feelings were stronger than before because he grew. The older me was saying that it was probably because I got close to the church that caused the reaction and that Ethan could actually be my chance of ever getting close to a guy.

My eyes fluttered open and the first thing I noticed was a blinding light. Shortly after I woke up, I noticed that I was in the infirmary, with Barry, Lucas, Dawn, Leaf, Gary, Brendan, and May circling my bed.

"She's awake!" Leaf cried out in utter glee.

I tried sitting up in the bed, but I fell back down to my laying position. Gary and Brendan fluffed up a pillow and set it behind my back while helping me sit back up. They were clearly worried about my little scene in the classroom, but they were glad that I woke up.

"We were so worried," Dawn told me. "You suddenly fainted in class. It was a miracle that he saved you."

"Who saved me?" I asked her.

"Actually, we can't tell you who it is. But he did tell us to tell you that you should meet him back in the classroom at the end of school," Leaf informed me.

"I don't agree with you, Dawn," May stated, letting Leaf finish answering my question before she brought up the topic yet again. "Sure, I'm grateful that he saved Lyra and all, but there was something about him that felt off."

"May is right. Lyra started her little spasm/panic attack when he walked in," Gary said. "For all we know, he could be the same guy that caused that to happen to her back then."

"Wait, what?" Brendan asked. "This happened to you before?"

His ruby eyes were boring into me, wanting an answer to his question. The rest, except for Gary, followed his little action, building the pressure on me so that I would give in and tell them.

"Back when Brendan was protecting May, the two of you were too caught up with your own problems that you didn't notice me. When that happened, Barry, Lucas, and Dawn were already out of the theater. Only Gary and Leaf were left to see it, and because Leaf was freaked out, Gary was the only one who saw the scene…"

"Why didn't you tell us?" May asked. "We're your friends, right?"

"I know you are, but I didn't want you guys to know. That's all," I answered.

"But-"

"I wouldn't blame her for keeping that from you guys," Barry stated, becoming serious in order to adapt to the situation. "I mean, that's some scary thing that happened to her."

"Besides, do you think she would have wanted you guys to worry about her?" Lucas asked, not expecting an answer since the question seemed rhetorical. "All of us have our own problems to worry about, so she just didn't want to be a burden."

"Surprisingly, they have a point." Dawn looked at the two of them and nodded. "We should be getting back to class, after all, I'm sure Lyra just wants some alone time."

They followed Dawn out of the infirmary, leaving me and the nurse here. At first, I didn't mind the silence, but it wasn't long until it started to bother me.

After the incident, I can swear that I never spoke for years. My mom decided to teach me at home while I was still mute. During that time, I never spoke with anyone else. I didn't see them either. But that wasn't the reason that silence bothered me.

When it was silent, there was nothing to do but think. When that happened, my mind would recall what my mom told me about everything. Although I was in total denial with what she told me, I knew it was right, and I finally accepted the facts when I fainted again.

Thinking about everything that happened, I recalled the time that I saw them after my five year absence. Dawn was finally running around on the playground, trying to catch Barry and Lucas, who stole her favorite plush toy. Gary and Leaf were casually walking around on the grass, the former usually looking at the leaves in the trees and the latter looking up at the sky. May and Brendan were on the swings, May happily pushing Brendan as she tried to get the swing Brendan was on to make a full 360 circle.

All of them changed over those five years of not seeing them. Dawn finally looked happy again unlike the fake smile she wore as she was wheeled out of the hospital. Leaf was finally becoming the Leaf that I knew, but she seemed much calmer, especially when she was with Gary. (This drastically changed when the two of them hit puberty, which was evident with the way they acted towards each other nowadays.) And both May and Brendan were starting to change into the other, while it seemed like their personalities were sucked out of them and transferred to the other.

It wasn't long before I started thinking about the mysterious dahlia I received. For a flower to not die after nine years meant that there was something up with it, so I took it to every florist in town, even sending DNA samples of it to renowned scientists around the world. Each time it came back, they said they couldn't find anything wrong. Eventually, I accepted its uniqueness and gave it to Winona so that she could turn it into something that I could wear since the color red complimented me.

When I heard music in the infirmary, I stopped thinking and focused my thoughts on the music. It was a mixture of percussions and strings with a heavenly voice accompanying the instruments. After listening to the song some more, it started to sound familiar and soon enough, I remembered it as the song back then.

"Nurse, what is that song called?" I asked her, hoping that she heard me.

"The song's name is 'Dahlia'," she answered.

"Do you know the artist?"

"Actually, no one knows. It appeared on the web only recently, and the origin of the song is clearly unknown. But that didn't stop it from becoming the number one song in the world!"

"What do you feel when you hear the song?"

She appeared in front of me in her rolling chair, checking my temperature before she answered my other question. "Although it's in Japanese, I get this feeling that it's a sad song, but at the same time, the composition of it is just amazing."

"One last question, what time is it?"

"It's nearing the end of school. Would you like me to call your mom or are you fine with walking?"

"I'm fine with walking."

I sat up from the bed and stood up, slipping my sock-covered feet into my shoes before I walked out of the office, thanking the nurse for taking care of me. If it was near the end of school, it meant that I had an appointment in the classroom.

The bell rang, and I saw Dawn running out the classroom with her phone pressed to her ear. It was odd how she didn't have Barry or Lucas trailing after her, but I saw them a while later, talking about stand-up comedy acts. Leaf and Gary passed by, giving me a simple wave as they silently walked through the corridors side-by-side. The same thing happened with May and Brendan, just a simple wave as they skipped through the hallway side-by-side.

When I got to the classroom, it was nearly empty. The only person left there was that Ethan guy that I briefly saw earlier that day, holding something red in his hand. Everything that I felt earlier was gone and as I got closer to him, the more I started to feel at ease, which was clearly a contrast to what happened when he got closer to me.

"So, you're the one that saved me from also suffering a concussion," I said without much enthusiasm. It was evident that my words were dripping with disgust, quickly catching his attention as he stopped examining the item in his hand to look at me.

"You're tone tells me you have a problem with that."

"That's because I actually do. When you walked in, I started feeling the same pain from back then when the theater exploded. It was similar to the feeling I got from the guy who nearly tore my arm out of its socket."

"And that has anything to do with me because?"

"I haven't felt that way ever since it happened."

Silence engulfed the room as he returned his attention to the red thing. "Would you like to come to the theater with me?" he suddenly asked.

"No."

"Why not?"

"I'm sure it's pretty obvious why not."

"I just want to know what happened to you at the theater. You can show me and I can understand it easier."

"And you care because?"

"I'm just curious, that's all. And another question."

"Yes?"

"Why did your clip grow bigger when I caught you?"

He threw the red object in his hands and it turned out it was the clip. At first, it looked like a jumble of fabric, but after looking at it some more, the amount of petals increased that the clip it was tied to wasn't visible. Oh my god, what the heck is up with this flower?

I clipped it back in my hair, glad that I finally eased the feeling that I lost something. My eyes darted over to where Ethan was, and then looked out the window to see the humungous hole in the theater. All I had to do was go there with Ethan, tell him what happened nine years ago, and then head on home…

Wait; go to the theater with Ethan? To me, that sounded more like a date or something, but I wouldn't know. I've been secluded from the world for about a third of my life, and I wasn't interested in things like this. But a girl like me going somewhere with a guy for the first time can't help but worry, right?

"You're face is red," he nonchalantly said.

Returning back to Earth, I looked in front of me to see his face only a few inches in front of mine. I'm sure that my temperature skyrocketed when I realized this because I felt my face heat up, my brain went into hyper mode, and my heart started to beat like crazy.

Is this an effect because of my special condition? Everything I felt seemed so overrated and exaggerated that it must have been an effect. But, oddly, I really didn't think it was. There something else weird about it, too.

It was as if it didn't belong to me.

The edges of Ethan's mouth lifted as a smile formed on his face. Soon enough, he was laughing, like he was enjoying my little moment. Although I was angry at him at first, it wasn't long before I ended up laughing, too. That Ethan was contagious. I think he was the first person to ever get that much emotion out of me.

"So, shall we?" he asked as he stopped laughing, offering me his hand.

"We shall," I answered with a smile, playfully taking his hand as he led me to the theater in a gentlemanly way.

…

The theater, despite its nine years of being graced with a hole in one of the walls, never lost its grandeur. Although the white was now more of an ash and the red seats were covered in a thin layer of dust, it made the building mystical, as if it was an ancient ruin being revisited thousands of years later.

"So this is the place that caught the attention of people everywhere…" Ethan slid his finger over one of the red seats, inspecting the dust that accumulated on the tip of his finger before wiping it on his pants.

"Yeah, amazing isn't it?"

"Not really, I mean, that hole kind of ruins the image." He pointed to the hole in the wall, which, in truth, really did ruin the image.

"Well, you had to be here before that hole was there to get what I mean!" I told him.

"Back to the point, mind reenacting the scene?"

With a sigh, I led him out of the theater into the ballroom. Around me, tables were turned over, tablecloths were sullied, and shards of porcelain tableware were scattered on the floor. Instead of the subtle smell of roses back then, the scent of dead, wilted flowers wafted throughout the room, degrading the magnificence that this room once held.

I started the tale by telling him of the time that the boy announced that he lost sight of the boy with glasses, which the majority of the kids back then were in pursuit of. Being the ever moving little girl I was, I emulated the way I walked through the ballroom, trying to look utterly mesmerized in the interior as I skipped across the room with Ethan close behind.

It wasn't long before I pushed the mahogany doors open again, before I told Ethan about the music, trying not to bore him with too many details. I skipped the part of waiting for Leaf, May, and Dawn to the time when all the kids were seated in the theater.

Up on the stage, I described how the boy with glasses went about the room, jumping off the stage, heading to a random seat where that girl was around before walking over to where my friends and I were sitting. I acted like I was each of them, acting like Dawn, Leaf, and May before moving to my part, which was essential to the whole story.

Ethan's interest in the story was wavering when I noticed him yawning, so I decided to have him play a role in this story. He pulled me like that boy did, until I told him to stop so that I could explain what happened.

I pointed over to the wall, explaining that there were adults dressed in black going in, dragging children out by force. Around me, there were supposedly children who couldn't make their escape. After that, I motioned towards the stage, telling him that the other two on there were trying to run away with the rest, but in the end, their attempt failed.

By this time, I told him that I was squirming out of the boy's grasp, making Ethan let go so that the story could progress. Then, I retold my feelings concisely, leaving out my friends' situations before I ended the story with an "I fell down here, unconscious."

"Did anyone save you?" Ethan asked, his attention caught by my last sentence.

"Well, my mom said some kid with glasses did, so yeah."

"Was it that guy who hurt you or something?"

"I guess, but I don't exactly know…" I replied. "Sure he was the only guy wearing glasses that I recall, but for all I know, it could have been someone else."

Looking around the nearly empty theater, I noticed that it was now colored with an orange hue from the sun setting off in the distance. Although I could have sworn that the story didn't take more that thirty minutes to tell, time probably decided to flit by faster.

"Anyways, I'll be going now." Ethan was heading for the entrance to the theater with his hands in his pockets, leaving me all alone in the theater.

With a sigh, I headed back to the school to get my stuff, stepping through the hole in the wall to get there. The school was already deserted, the teachers and students were probably back at home, or somewhere else other than here.

And then I exited the school building as the sun was nearly gone and the night was dawning, driving away the red, orange, yellow, and pink hues from the setting sun.

…

I was already at home in my pajamas, lying down on my bed. Dinner was already served, the homework was finished, and all I that I had left to do was nothing. Well, technically, there were some other things I could do to pass the time, but I wasn't in the mood to do anything.

I rolled on my bed until I was lying on my stomach, taking the picture frame from my desk to get a better look at it. The picture was old, something that was taken back when I was four or five. In it were me and my twin sister, smiling at the camera with our dad in the background.

Back then, I was a jumpy little kid, often smiling without a care in the world. With my twin sister and tow, we would parade around the town, finding new things for us to discover. If we had the other kids along with us, we went over to the bayou to either swim or catch bugs, which Dawn would usually head on home if we decided to do the latter.

Before the whole theater incident, that was how our days went, carelessly spending them with the others. One day, we were at the library, having stories told to us, the next day, we would be at the candy shop, spending our money on penny candy. It was never boring here, and there were new discoveries laid out for us each and every day.

I thought it was weird that Dad and Crystal disappeared the day before the wedding, but my mom kept telling me that someday they would come back. Since I was a child, I believed her, but it was all a lie.

Dad never came back. Every time I would call his cell phone number, he would either say "I'm busy sweetie," or "Not now." As I grew older, the answering machine picked up, and I wasn't surprised when the number finally became unavailable. I always thought that he brought Crystal with him because he loved her more than me, but that was a lie.

If I were to count all the lies in my life, it would be impossible because there were so many.

My mom lied to me before, back when I was a child. Although she knew that lying to me at my current age was not the wisest idea, I couldn't help but feel that sometimes she was. But she wasn't the reason why there were so many lies in my life.

In fact, I'm the cause for so many false statements. When everyone else asked me how I was after my five year absence, I replied with a simple "I'm fine." In reality, I wasn't because of the burden that I had to bear. But I guess lying to them was the best course of action to protect them.

I heard my phone vibrating on my desk, so I reached over and picked it up.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Lyra, I have something to tell you…" It was May on the phone, and she didn't seem too happy.

"Sure."

"You know what happened this morning, right?" May asked.

"Some elaboration is needed if you want me to understand."

"I'm talking about you fainting and stuff."

"I'm all ears, so go ahead."

"You know how Ethan saved you, right?"

"Yeah,"

"Well, Dawn took a picture of him with her cell and decided to ask the other kids if they knew him."

"And?"

"They said that he looked exactly like the guy with glasses back then."

"No he doesn't," I told her. "He's not wearing glasses."

"Lyra, our modern world has something we like to call 'contact lenses'. Besides, you didn't see him without the glasses."

"What do you mean?"

"When you passed out, he removed them. And those who so happened to see his face said that he looked exactly the same."

"You're lying."

"I'm not lying, Lyra. You need to listen to me!"

I pressed the hang up button before tossing the cell phone back on desk, causing a huge clanking noise when the metal touched the wood. It wasn't long before I heard it ringing again, but I ignored it. There was no way that that could be true, just no way.

I looked back at the photo frame with the photo that was taken when Crystal was still here, Dad was still loving all of us, and I was still as innocent as innocent could get. My past was just an ephemeral dream to me now, filled with happiness and joy that could never be achieved from here on out.

"Crystal," I said, talking to no one in particular, "why do you think this had to happen to us? We could have been a normal family of four, with mom, dad, you and me, so why did dad leave? And why did you go with him?"

This soliloquy wasn't helping, and it wasn't long before I started crying, with my tears falling down like crystal waterfalls. Everything that I tried doing to cheer myself up wasn't working, whether it was reading anything from my collection of humorous stories to making fun of the soap operas that were shown at this time.

But the tears wouldn't stop falling. And that was how I fell asleep, my face streaked with tears.

…

The next morning, I wasn't feeling good, so my mom decided to let me stay home. I thought that I was being a drama queen last night, so I told my mom that she shouldn't baby me and make me go to school, but she only replied with a disapproving look.

"I know what you were crying about last night," she said as she entered my room with my breakfast on a tray.

"But it was probably the hormones from puberty and stuff!"

"No, it wasn't," she told me with her voice stern. "I know the difference between drama queen crying and sad crying. Last night was a definite sad crying."

"Mom, I'm not even sick! People usually go to school, even if they have problems like these!"

"Yes, but your school ties in with _that_ past. Like I said, I'm not letting you go to school today."

"But-"

"No buts. Now" –she placed the breakfast tray on my lap forcefully- "eat your breakfast."

She left my room, clearly upset with my behavior the past few minutes. I'm kind of glad that she actually cares about me, but it was pretty annoying to have her baby me just because I was "special." And trust me, that special wasn't a good compliment _at all_.

I started to dig into my breakfast plate, tackling the eggs and bacon first before moving on to the toast and then the hash browns. In the middle of the fried potato goodness, I heard my phone vibrate. Being careful not to topple my breakfast tray (which also had a glass of orange juice on in, much to my dismay since I spilled things easily), I picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Lyra, I'm-"

"If you're sorry about last night, I forgive you. I overreacted, but I still don't believe you."

"You don't have to believe me," May said. "I'm even doubting if it was true or not. After all, they had to recall an incident _nine _years ago."

"True that!"

"So, are you coming down?" she asked. "We're all waiting for you."

"Nope, mom wants me to stay home."

"Oh, okay. See you soon!"

Before I could even reply to the sentence that meant what I think it meant, I heard the beeping on my cell that meant that the line was disconnected. Shortly after, my door swung open to reveal May, whose grin was nearly touching her ears.

"What the?" I was speechless at May's acts for her friend (me) who acted rudely to her the night before, but she was May.

And knowing May, she never liked it when her friend was down, even if they never showed it in public.

…

**A/N: **Whoops, I forgot about my author's notes on the first chapter (or prologue or introduction, whatever you would like to call it), but I do hope that you enjoy this story. If possible, any constructive criticism is accepted for this story with open arms. And if possible, I would love to have someone beta this for me. I'm not so confident in my grammar, even if I do get hundreds in all the grammar exercises we do in class. .

**Emmychao: **Sorry for beating you to the punch! Actually, I intended not to put this story up, but my friend wanted to read it since I couldn't send it over to her e-mail (it has problems) so, yeah. And I'm glad that you like it. Also, I'm looking forward to your multi-chaptered EthanxLyra story! But, that's only if you're going to post it…

**MidnightheartXxX: **Was it really that intense? I mean, I'm not very good at drama and prefer writing in the comedy genre instead, but I'm thankful for your review. =D


	3. Surprise! I'm home!

"Oh no, I'm not letting you skip school for me!" I told her. If I was able to get up, I would have pushed her out of the house and locked each door and window. Sadly, the breakfast tray that still had food on it was not helping, so I was stuck with telling her to get to school.

"Come on! Think of this as an 'I'm sorry' for last night!"

"Maybelle Cornelia Maple, get your butt out of this house to school right now!"

"Lyra, my middle name is not Cornelia."

"Oh well." I sighed. "No matter what I do, I highly doubt you're getting out of my room."

"Yup!" she chirped, sitting herself down on my bed.

One thing about May was that she was stubborn. No matter what anyone tried doing to persuade her to think in a different direction, she was bent on whatever she had set her mind on first. Although it mostly had its flaws, sometimes that stubbornness of hers helped.

Now, she was pretty much stuck at my house for the rest of the day until school ended. There wasn't anything to do, so I was sure that May would get bored, but I knew that she needed to talk to me about something. She never ever went to my house at all unless it was something important (although the word "important" had many meanings to her, sometimes it was just stupid stuff to me).

While I was eating the remainder of my breakfast, she just watched me in silence from her spot on my bed. When I finished, she took it down so that my mom could wash it before coming back up and sitting in the same spot she sat in before. She wanted to start a decent conversation, but it looked like she was having trouble, so I started it for her.

"So, you need to talk to me about anything?" I asked. "I know you didn't skip school just to keep me company for the day."

"Well, I need to finish what I was telling you last night since you hung up on me before I could tell you what happened. But knowing you, I'm sure you would have thrown me out of the window if I started anything on that topic, so I need to ask a few questions about Ethan."

"Are you interested in him?"

"No!" Although this response was considered as a sign of denial, I didn't think it was this time. Her face didn't flare up, and she didn't seem nervous.

"Ask away, but I'm telling you, I don't know him that well."

"Okay! Is he nice?"

"I'm sure he is if he saved me from falling."

"Is he a pervert?"

"Where the heck did you get that from?" Seriously, who asks "Is he a pervert?" with a straight face?

"Hey, I'm the one asking the questions here!"

"No, he is not."

"Lastly, was there anything that seemed amiss when you were with him?"

"Yes, yes there was."

Her eyes started to bore into me. She wanted more information like an interviewer and a celebrity interviewee, trying to squeeze every ounce of juicy gossip so that it could be the next celebrity scandal on the front cover of every magazine out there. There was no way for me to lie in this case since May could tell the truth from a lie in seconds, even if it was convincing.

"Well," I started, "it happened when I met him in the classroom after school. Unlike the little scenario earlier that day, I felt calmer as I approached him. Also, there was a time when I became flushed in embarrassment from being so close to him, but it felt like it wasn't my feelings, rather, it was someone else's. And he was so interested in wanting to hear the theater incident from my point of view, too."

"Interesting…" She yawned a bit, meaning that my long winded answer was too much for the barbarian-like, Neanderthal-like brain that Brendan accused her of having. "Anyways, it's my turn to tell you what was troubling me for the past few days."

"Go on ahead."

Her face turned as red as my Dahlia clip after I said that. Could it be that she wanted to talk to me about a guy? To be specific, could it be that she wanted to talk to me about a certain guy who went along to name of "Brendan"?

There was no way that anyone would want to talk about anything like that with me. It was a well known fact that I didn't have any experience with anything involving, love, liking, or crushes, but it was also a well known fact that my advice was the best in town. So, it was only natural that anyone who knew me would come to me for advice ranging from life problems to relationships.

"It's about—er—what happened yesterday morning…"

"Oh, you're talking about your epic-fail moment with Brendan?"

"Yeah…" Her face kept getting redder and redder by the second as she twiddled her thumbs. It was weird how she only started to take interest in Brendan now since they knew each other ever since they were little. I wonder why…

"What about it?" I raised my eyebrow, not only intrigued by her behavior but the topic that she just brought up.

She started twiddling her thumbs like crazy. "Well, our shrink told us to find a person that we can depend on. You know, like open up to them and stuff…"

"I thought your psychologist didn't know what he's talking about," I told her.

She laughed a bit as she pulled her thumbs away from each other, placing her hands on her sides as she leaned on them. "You have to admit, what he makes us do is pretty crazy, but it does work."

"And what does this have to do with Brendan again?"

"Well, he's the person I want to open up to. After all, I trust him the most." She flashed me a smile. "Considering the way he thinks of me, I don't even think he'll look at me more than a Neanderthal who doesn't know what the hell she's talking about."

"Hey," I warned, "watch your damn language."

May looked at me with a surprised look since I didn't curse much. But we ended up laughing because of the lame joke, thinning the atmosphere in the room before returning back to the conversation.

"How do you think I'll be able to get his attention though?" she inquired.

"Be yourself." She shot me a look like I was crazy. "Look, you can't turn into someone or something you're not. That'll just freak him out more."

"I guess you have a point—hey, your phone is ringing."

I turned around to face my desk to see my phone dancing on the polished wood. Picking it up, I saw that I received a text message from Dawn, which didn't make any sense at all. School was in session and the only reason that Dawn would text me during a time like that was when it was an emergency. Of course, we had different definitions to the word "emergency", but I hope this wasn't her stupid definition of it.

**To: Lyra**

**From: Dawn**

**LUCAS IS A FRIGGIN' DOLT!**

**To: Dawn**

**From: Lyra**

**How come?**

**To: Lyra**

**From: Dawn**

**He just gave your number to HIM.**

**To: Dawn**

**From: Lyra**

**Ethan?**

**To: Lyra**

**From: Dawn**

**Yes, HIM.**

**To: Dawn**

**From: Lyra**

**Okay, thanks for the heads up?**

I tossed my phone to May. "Just look at the next text, but don't tell me what it's about."

"Okay?" My phone started vibrating in her hand, so she looked at the incoming text. An understanding look replaced the puzzled expression on her face before she tossed it back at me. "No wonder you didn't want to look at it."

"Would you always want to be on the other end of Dawn's rant?"

"No, I guess not. And thanks for the advice, even if it was pretty simple and obvious."

"It's fine," I said. "Anyways, how do you want to pass the rest of the day?"

May eyed my TV and the Wii beside it. "Wanna play Brawl?"

"You. Are. On."

…

That was how we spend the rest of the day until school ended, playing Brawl in front of my TV upstairs. I was sure it was going to get boring fast, but May proved me wrong. Unlike Dawn (who usually went over to my house to rant about stuff), she actually knew how to play Brawl. In fact, she won most of the time.

"What do you expect? Being a barbarian has its good points!" she answered when I asked her about her playing skills.

Actually, this was the first time that May ever enjoyed herself at my house. Back when she visited, it was a nearly video game free zone. The only thing that I had in my room was my DS, which was used to play each and every Pokémon game released. But I didn't want her to mess up any of my files, so that was off-limits to her.

Yes, I was a Pokémon freak, I admit that. In fact, I would go as far to say that I was a Pokémon master. Although it was difficult to assert my title back then with the Game Boy, it was confirmed by the time the DS came out with the GTS. After that, I held every record possible for the game. They were unbreakable.

Or so I thought…

One day, I was informed by a few internet friends that my records were broken, so I naturally turned on my DS to check it out. I was surprised that they did get broken, so I went back to getting my name back on the records. One day, my name was there. Next day, it was off.

It didn't take long for me to get ticked off at my game. Everyday, it was annoying to work my butt off just to maintain my title, so I gave up trying. When the new game came out, I didn't try much. I just played the game like any normal person, keeping track of the records on the GTS to see if that same person appeared.

Of course that person did, but that was all history. I became another Pokémon trainer "aiming" to become a Pokémon master, clearly forgotten ever since I dropped off the records. Well, my internet friends still knew, but I stopped talking to them a while ago.

When school ended, May and I stopped playing Brawl. We went downstairs to be greeted by a gracious amount of snacks that my mom made. They weren't just for us, but for the others who were definitely going to come…according to my mother's intuition that is.

Dawn came in first with all of the stuff that I missed, helping herself to my mom's snacks before teaching me things that I would need to know to finish my homework. Although she wasn't exactly the spitting image of an honor student, she was extremely knowledgeable in things ever since we were younger.

Lucas and Barry came shortly after Dawn finished helping me with my homework, with Lucas stuffing half of the snacks down his throat, causing Barry to smack some sense into him. Lucas also apologized that he gave someone my number without my permission, but I told him it was okay.

Leaf and Gary came once the trio went upstairs to watch some stand-up comedy acts on my computer. The two of them asked if I was okay, glad that I told them so before eating some snacks and telling me about the events that happened at school in May's and my absence.

Lastly, Brendan came with Ethan in tow, entirely surprising me. Brendan said that he was glad that I was okay, and then asked where May was to tell her about her unacceptable behavior that morning. Ethan, on the other hand, seemed kind of embarrassed that he was at my house, even after he called me on my cell phone to see if I would allow him to come over...

Wait, what?

I forgot about that. Ever since Dawn sent the texts, I turned off my cell phone so that I didn't get anymore, completely forgetting about my phone until Ethan brought it up. Although I had one, I wasn't exactly overly possessive of it. I didn't text or call people that often, so I didn't exactly keep track of it that well.

"Yeah, I kept trying to call you, but it immediately went to your answering machine. Eventually, I asked Brendan to take me to your house," he told me, giving me a sheepish smile.

"Why exactly did you ask Brendan to take you to my house?" I asked.

He thought for a bit before replying to my question. "That's because I went to the bayou to get some fresh air and then I saw him. He kept mumbling something about May, but I couldn't exactly understand what he was saying."

"That's a shame," I said. "I mean, if you were able to understand, that would be great."

For a moment, he shot me a confused look, grasping what I meant. "Why would that be great for you?"

"Ah—"

Brendan started tumbling down the stairs and he hit the floor with a resounding thump. On the second floor, I saw May looking as angry as ever with her face beet red from frustration, with Lucas, Barry, and Dawn trying to calm her down as best as they could.

"You bastard!" May screamed. "You would never understand because you never had them!" She disappeared into my room, slamming the door shut to emphasize on her anger.

"Hey, can you take care of Brendan for a bit?" I asked Ethan. "It seems as though something happened."

"Yeah, sure, go ahead."

I ran up the stairs and went into my room to see May hugging my pillow as she buried her face into my sheets. She must have been frustrated with Brendan since the main reason he came was to nag at her behavior. Although she might not have known, nagging meant that he cared.

"Why the hell does he have to nag me so much?" May screeched as she lifted her head from my sheets.

"Nagging means he cares. And who knows, maybe the way he treats you is the way he shows his affection," I answered, having her stare at me like I was crazy.

"What have you been smoking?" she queried as her voice boomed in my room.

I sighed at her behavior. "I don't smoke, and it's the truth, okay?"

May pouted, doubting that I was telling her the truth. Eventually, she decided to think things over and came to the conclusion that I was telling her the truth, asking me to get Brendan upstairs so that they could talk.

"I don't exactly think he's going to come up after painfully tumbling down a flight of stairs," I told her with a smile.

"Well, convince him! You're good at that, right?"

"I guess so, but I can't guarantee he'll be coming up, okay?"

I exited my room and slid down the railing on the stairs. In the living room, Leaf and Gary were talking about the little incident while Ethan was casually chatting with Brendan about May, halting the conversation when I came down. Ethan stood up from his seat, telling Brendan that he would be right back before approaching me.

"How is she?" he asked.

"Utterly paranoid. She can't even stand his behavior anymore. She's completely fed up with it."

"Is there a way to fix it?"

I sighed before shaking my head. "You have to let them have a one-on-one talk upstairs."

"Which is nearly impossible considering the way May just treated him a while back…" I nodded, completely agreeing with what Ethan said.

"Well, I'll see what I can do," he said. "Maybe he might even come up."

"And thanks for helping, even though I unwillingly dragged you into this mess."

"It's fine." He returned back to the sofa to tell Brendan that he had to go back upstairs to have a one-on-one talk with May.

Just like I thought, Brendan was adamant on his decision to not see her. He was afraid that she was going to attack him once again, giving him more pain. Ethan managed to convince him that May wasn't going to do anything like that, but have a supposedly meaningful conversation with the girl. Brendan hesitated for a bit before standing up to head to my room.

"I guess that takes care of it." Ethan looked up at the door that just closed.

"Yeah, all that's left now is to leave them alone and sort things out."

…

For some reason, everyone's parents let them stay over longer than usual, meaning that they were going to eat dinner at my place tonight. We all naturally helped make the feast that we would be digging into lately, bringing out the foldable chairs to allow more people to sit at the dining table.

During that time, May and Brendan were still talking up in my room. Through the dinner chatter, I could still hear their voices, soft and subtle as they tried talking things through. Meals like this weren't the same without the two since May would constantly be chastised my Brendan because of her horrible table manners, but it felt less jovial without them.

When dinner was done, we decided to save two plates of food for them since they were eventually going to eat. But it was already nearing nine. They were still talking since I often dropped by my room to see if they were hungry or were doing okay. It was all up to them right now and if all they needed was some more time, it was best to just give it to them.

When ten was approaching, everyone was getting ready to leave. Lucas and Barry were already downstairs with their backpacks in tow, sitting down on the sofa while they watched the sit-coms that were on TV at that time. Dawn was with them as well, with her stuff at her feet.

Leaf and Gary were still talking about some ancient book that I didn't know about. It was funny how Leaf was a person who looked like she couldn't stand books, but in reality, she shared the same passion Gary had for them. That was the reason why they always ended up going to the library after school.

Ethan and I stood at the bottom of the staircase, wondering when the two upstairs were going to come down. Of course, given the time elapsed ever since Brendan entered, one might have thought that they were doing something else, but I could still hear their voices, muffled up by my wooden door.

I was glad when my door opened to reveal the two of them casually talking about the bayou. They grabbed their stuff while my mom handed them the dinner that they missed before they settled down at the dining table, trying to eat some of it before they were going to leave.

And that was when it happened.

While I was talking to May about what happened, glad at the results that the two of them compromised on their relationship, I heard the doorbell ring. The first thought that came to my mind was that one of their parents came to pick them up, but they were back at their respective houses, waiting for their teens to come home.

"I'm coming!" I called, standing up from my chair and walking over to the door.

It swung wide open because of the fall breeze, allowing the fallen leaves to come flying through the doorway. Although I should have been concerned about them, all I could do was stare at the person who was smiling at me.

"I'm home!" she announced.

…

**A/N:** Actually, I'm pretty disappointed with this chapter since it didn't exactly go the way I wanted it to go. Also, it's shorter than the previous two, but I decided to cut it off short for the cliffhanger since I love my cliffhangers. XD

Also, I'd like to apologize to those who were given false hope by my quick updates, but something came up in my life and I started a one-shot in order to cope with some feelings from the event. I'm planning on posting it here soon, but it's still only halfway complete…


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